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Had to pick between repointing old brick or letting the tuckpointing go
My house in Cincinnati has 130 year old brick on the front face, and the joints were crumbling bad in a few spots near the roofline. I got quotes for full repointing at $4,800 versus a partial patch job for $1,200 from a guy who said the rest could wait another 5 years. I went with the full job after a mason friend told me water getting behind the brick was the real enemy, not the look. The crew finished in 3 days and found two hidden cracks that would've leaked straight into the wall cavity. Anyone here regret holding off on repointing and dealing with spalling later?
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blairj553d ago
Did the mason friend actually look at your brick himself or was he just going off what you told him over the phone? Because 130 year old Cincinnati brick is usually softer than modern stuff and full repointing with the wrong mortar mix can do more harm than the crumbly joints ever would. What kind of mortar did the crew use, and did they match the old lime based stuff or just grab a bag of Portland? Those two hidden cracks make me wonder how deep they had to grind out the joints to find them.
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